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 MoU with
International Federation of the Red Cross
The first MOU between SEARO-WHO
and IFRC was signed in September 2003. It was a consensual commitment between
the two organizations both at regional and country level to collaborate on
disaster preparedness and response, control of communicable diseases
including HIV/AIDS, and voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation.
In light of the progress
achieved in strengthening the technical cooperation during the first
collaboration period, the MoU was renewed in March
2007 up to the period ending 31
December 2009. Collaboration will be focused on two areas, namely
HIV/AIDS and Emergency Preparedness and Response. A mid-term review will be
undertaken by the two organizations to monitor progress and prepare for
further cooperation.
The collaboration in emergency
preparedness and response will focus on four main areas of work:
 Initiatives for improved emergency
preparedness with a focus on community empowerment and capacity building.
This will involve developing and updating guidelines and standard operating
procedures for national emergency preparedness and response planning;
organizing national level stakeholder workshops to identify and prioritize
interventions at the district / village level; and implementing
capacity-building plans for priority communities.
Response coordination following the Cluster
approach. This will focus on formulating rules of engagement and operational
pre-arrangements for emergency response.
Research, which will focus on operations
research and / or good documentation of good practices for community based
disaster and health risk management; and studies to document regional
experience in the application of the principles of Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD).
Partnership and advocacy, with a focus on
promotion of the WHO-IFRC collaboration and partnership, organizing meetings
with interested parties to discuss emergency preparedness issues, and on
advocacy initiatives to address key health issues.
Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia
and the Pacific (PHEMAP)
PHEMAP is an inter-regional
training programme between SEARO and WPRO. It is
organized in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center based in the Asian
Institute of Technology in Bangkok,
Thailand. The
course is offered once a year, and covers basic disaster management
principles such as: environmental health, communicable diseases control,
nutrition, mass casualty management, hospital/health facilities preparedness
among others. The course is meant for high level policy makers and programme managers who address disaster and emergency
preparedness and response in the health sector. Subsequently, the trainees
are expected to support national capacity building for emergency health
preparedness and response. National PHEMAP courses have been conducted in Sri Lanka, and additional national level
workshops are currently being planned for India
and Bangladesh.
Public Health Pre-deployment Course (PHPD)
The PHPD course is an important
step towards improving the capacity of the international humanitarian
community in emergencies. The course is designed to give health and other
professionals the public health, personal and operational skills they need to
work as part of public health response teams in emergency settings. The
course integrates the humanitarian reforms and new coordination mechanisms,
including the United Nations Health Cluster approach that has been developed
to improve coordination on the ground.
The overall objective of the
course is to prepare public health and other professionals to work safely and
effectively in inter-agency and national country teams, so that humanitarian
health is delivered in a predictable manner and that, ultimately, health
action in crises is improved.
In the South-East Asia Region,
the first course will be organized by SEARO and the Indian Institute of
Health Management Research, Jaipur, India
towards the end of 2007.
Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment and Monitoring System (TRIAMS)
The Asian Tsunami of 26 December 2004 was one
of the worst natural disasters in recent history. Five countries of the WHO
South East Asia region were affected, namely India,
Indonesia, Maldives, Sri
Lanka, and Thailand. The tsunami resulted in
a massive outpouring of private and public relief and reconstruction
assistance. Official and private pledges reached US $ 13.6 billion, well
above the initial 10 US $ billion estimated cost of the reconstruction.
However, little is known about the magnitude and nature of the tsunami’s
impact on livelihoods, economic activity, and individual well-being,
particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the affected
communities. Even less is known about the extent to which recovery efforts
have addressed the human and socio-economic losses of he affected
communities.
At two meetings of the Global
Consortium for Tsunami-Affected Countries (UN, NY June 3, and September 2005)
participants agreed on the importance of a common system for tracking the
impact of the humanitarian response efforts. Such a system would, 1) enable
donors, governments, implementing agencies and beneficiaries to see results
more clearly, and 2) help lessen the data collection burdens placed on
implementing agencies, governments and recipients of aid. As members of the
Global Consortium, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) with support from
the Office of the Special Envoy (OSE)
are leading the collective effort of the Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment
and Monitoring System (TRIAMS).
The overall aim of the TRIAMS
is to ensure that governments, donors, NGOs, civil society and other stakeholders
are adequately informed on the progress of the recovery efforts in the
tsunami-affected areas, so that adjustments can be made to the assistance
programs in order to address the un-met needs and the existing inequalities.
The first Regional TRIAMS
workshop was held in May 2006, in Bangkok.
Key indicators were discussed and agreed among the five countries. In
addition, countries recognized the need to also monitor beneficiaries’
perspectives as well as examine recovery via qualitative efforts to help
explain the quantitative findings; the quantitative indicators were grouped
in four areas of the recovery process, namely: (1) Vital needs; (2) Basic
social services; (3) Infrastructure; and (4) Livelihood. The second Regional
TRIAMS workshop was held in Bangkok
in March 2007 to monitor and discuss the progress. It was organized by WHO, UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok
and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC), and delegates from Indonesia,
Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated.
In Thailand, several national
workshops have been organized by WHO, the DDPM and
the Phuket Provincial Public Health office (PHO) of
the MOPH and involving key National stakeholders. The draft ‘impact
assessment and monitoring national plan of action for 2007 to 2009’ was
shared at the 2nd Regional Meeting.
Roster of experts
The Asian Tsunami in 2004
sharply highlighted the importance of adequate emergency preparedness. The
effectiveness of the countries’ response to a disaster of that magnitude
depended heavily on their level of preparedness. In order to be able to
rapidly deploy experts to the field in support of the National Health
Authorities and the WHO country office emergency operations, a web-based
roster is being developed.
The database contains regional
and national experts who can be deployed to assist the member countries with
emergency response. Areas of expertise covered are amongst others: public
health, communicable disease surveillance and control, mass casualty management,
logistics, information and communication, water and sanitation and nutrition.
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